Corruption of Savernec
Savernic, the continent in the northern and western hemispheres of the world of Averna. The land and its disparate peoples are rife with magic. Though for the last few years the world has been changing, becoming more hostile, from the plants and animals commonly found to the beast-men of the uncivilized regions. Those with an affinity for magic can feel a growing taint spreading from the ley lines but no one has identified the cause. It is to this end that you and your new comrades have been called upon, a call that originated from Demartia's Adventurers' Guild.
You have come from your various lands, for various reasons, whether it be to make a name for yourselves, to better yourselves, to seek answers to this coming crisis or to make your fortune, your reasons are your own. Regardless of your reasons the path you now tread leads to this corruption, though you know not yet what stops you may make upon this journey, it is certain that the guild's goal for you is to resolve this growing threat.
The world of Averna, and its people.
Averna is made up of a myriad of geographic locals from mountain ranges capped in snow, to great bogs and swamps. Seven continents grace this ancient world, though our story focuses on just one at present. Savernec, the continent is just above the world's central line, therefore its southern regions are hot, varying between humid jungles, swamps, and bugs, and swaths of desert depending on the specific regions. Vast mountain ranges ring the boundaries of the continent to the southwest and the northeastern territory. High desert and cloud forests ancient and primordial mark the climate of the northwest, while the eastern sea is met by rolling hills where it comes ashore. The center of the continent is vast plains ideal for farming cultures. The west is largely unexplored with the inhospitable desert in the south and great ancient forests in the north a massive river enters the western sea flowing from the heartland and the northeastern ranges.
Magic suffuses the continent of Savernec, infusing the wildlife, the forests, the land itself with supernatural potential. This magic comes from the land itself welling up in great, unseen rivers of power that flow beneath the landscape branching and distributing that power to the vast reaches of the far wilds and everywhere in between. This power has shaped life in Savernec, both on a biological scale, and on a societal scale.
Savernec is populated by many types of people, from the mysterious fey, Intelligent creatures born of nature and magic blending and giving new form to the species it touched, to the ever-expanding, ever-advancing humans, their thirst for growth and advancement leading them to the precipice of dangerous climates. Beast men and monstrous humanoids are oft found where other species fear to live relegated there by the more civilized species of the world, some among them might be numbered as gnolls, goblins, or lizardfolk. Dwarves live in the mineral-rich reaches of the northern mountains their ilk prone to isolation except for the rare merchant or adventurer. Elves are tribal people though they have advanced skill in magic poetry and the arts, they seek ever to escape the growing creep of civilization seeking harmony with the world around them. Seek them, where man has yet to make his strongholds.
The Kingdoms of Savernec
In the far northwest, the region known as the Fey wilds is occupied by the namesake fey. They are ruled over by the individual with the tie to the strongest natural force. Positive affiliated Fey are associated with growth, the sun and warmth, their ruler is known as the Thorn king or the Thorn queen, though this as much loyalty and fealty as it is the natural order of the fey. Meanwhile negatively affiliated Fey are associated with winter, decay, death, and night, their ruler is always referred to as the Black Lord or the Black Lady. The Fey are organized below the hierarchy in much the same way a natural ecosystem is organized with the most powerful and most predatory at the top of the food chain, and the weakest or least dangerous at the lowest station. The territory of the Fey is rarely disputed, and only those discontent with their role amongst their brethren are ever seen beyond the fey wilds.
The dwarves are organized into holds and clans, with each clan occupying a specific social niche within its hold. The ruler of the hold is ordained in a ceremony performed by priests of the stone heart of the mountain, they confer the status of chief upon each hold. The holds are in turn divided in rank by the minerals for which they have an affinity and are known to mine, with the noblest hold being that which mines gold, silver, and precious stones.
The elves are tribal with each tribe being lead by an oracle of the land, one who can hear the voice of the land and guide the people in attaining harmony and surcease from the territory they live in. Most tribes are named after their habitat, forests, lakes, mountains, even islands, though a rare few are nomadic and each of them is named after one of the constellations. Elves are curious, creative, and extremely self-aware which often leads younger elves astray those that don't return often don't because they have found a kind of harmony living amongst the other races.
The human territories are twofold. The first is the territory of Demartia, a peaceful enough territory ruled by a council. Peace in Demartia is kept and maintained by guilds, who tend to the various needs of society, farming blacksmithing, adventuring, hunting, and some rumors say thieving. The adventurers are those called upon to handle threats of monsters or incursions from other kingdoms. Demartia is the most accepting of the human territories with sizable populations of elves, dwarves and the occasional fey or beast-man all of whom live and work towards the betterment of their territory. Iskandel is a warlike country, its leader is a general, and his underlings, position in Iskandel is derived from service and martial exploits, victories in combat in layman's terms. All progress in Iskandel is set towards conquest, with only the internal factions vying from power restraining them from all-out war.
The beast-men meanwhile tend to only gather in small packs except for goblins who have historically been known to form hordes and recruit other beast-men to war against the hated races of civilization. They are in near-constant conflict with the other races, though their numbers are numerous they are disorganized.
The Magick of Averna
Magick exists in nearly everything on the world of Averna, that magick travels and spreads out through lesser branches in a system known as ley lines. From the ley lines, all magick enters the environment, but this is magick in its most raw state hardly fit for using or casting. No, before magick can be used, or cast it must first be refined, that process occurs naturally in physical objects suffused by the ley lines, such as plant and animal life, minerals, even metals the whole world for all intents and purposes. What you want to do with magic determines how you must gather this energy. Healing, for example, can not be done with magick gathered through violence against animals, instead, it is often harvested with care from living medicinal plants which serve a secondary purpose and are often combined with the magick being used for greatest effect. Another example is that magick to shape stone and earth cannot be harvested from the air, or its creatures, meanwhile crystals and stones which store magick can not be used to cast magick which affects water, that is the basic principle for refining magick, gather your energy from that which you seek to affect.
Each race has its own unique methods for casting magick, derived from this basic principle, though the humans offer the most varied approaches. Magic in human society is taught at institutions, which often partner with craftsmen who specialize in creating talismans that can gather various types of energy this can take many forms depending on the specific craftsman and caster and any request which occurs between them. Casters in every society are trained by those that came before them, this specific relationship varies depending on the community and race of the practitioners. Magick, despite being an external force, is channeled through the living body of the caster, this limits the strength of what most casters can do to the amount of energy they have practiced wielding. Further, it draws some of the caster's own Magick which requires time to recover to full, depleting these resources can drain or even harm a caster and all casters are warned against it.
